Trapped In Paradise
Volume 3 Chapter 5 / Chapter 510: Every Banquet Must Come to an End
The next day happened to be the weekend. Ning Chu got up early and arrived at the entrance of the pub off campus.
Normally, a bar would never be open this early in the morning, but today the door was half-open, with soothing music drifting out from inside.
"Sister Qian Qian~"
She pushed the door open and walked in. Behind the counter, Qian Qian was holding a bottle in one hand, slumped over the bar with a hazy drunken look in her eyes.
"Why are you drinking in broad daylight~"
Seeing her like this, Ning Chu frowned and stepped forward, snatching the bottle away before setting it on a distant table.
"So annoying…"
Qian Qian's white cat ears drooped as she buried her face into her folded arms in frustration.
"What happened?"
"Who else? Shaoqing's mom…" she grumbled. "She thinks I'm too old for him, and she keeps implying I'm only after his money."
This was the first Ning Chu had heard of it, though during PE class yesterday she had noticed Zhang Shaoqing looking unusually troubled.
She'd assumed that shameless guy was worried about internships, but apparently his mother had started causing trouble again.
"She really said that to you?"
"Not directly…" Qian Qian was already half drunk, her voice loud as she slammed the table angrily. "But isn't that obviously what she meant?!"
"Yeah, I do like that he has money! So what?! Having money is a plus! Who doesn't like money?! But Shaoqing and I have been together for three years already, okay? I've barely even spent any of his money!"
Ning Chu glanced around the little bar and cautiously asked,
"Then this place…"
This bar had opened two years ago. Qian Qian had even quit her school job to focus on managing it.
Because of that, Ning Chu had failed her English finals and had to take a makeup exam.
"Oh, please! This place hasn't made a cent since opening. I'm the one paying the utilities and rent. I dumped all my savings into it."
"And he's technically the owner. I'm basically just an unpaid worker."
She could only rest her chin in her hands helplessly while listening to Qian Qian vent.
Fortunately, the door behind them opened again.
"Morning!"
"Sister Ning Chu! Morning!"
The energetic husky girl bounded in first, followed by the succubus in a conservative long dress with her usual icy expression, and then the red-haired twin-tailed magical girl.
They had arranged to go shopping and watch a movie together over the weekend, while also discussing Xi Xi's future boyfriend situation. Back then, they used to gather at the café across from the school gates, but ever since Qian Qian's bar opened, they'd switched to meeting here instead.
Here they could freeload drinks for free, and if they came in the afternoon or evening, they could even mooch some barbecue.
Ning Chu seriously suspected that the main reason the bar was losing money was because of freeloading "parasites" like them.
With more people around, Qian Qian stopped looking like a drunken, heartbroken mess, though she still seemed a bit dazed.
"Sister Qian Qian's been drinking?"
"Get me a couple bottles too! I'm in a bad mood as well!"
Yan Xinya shouted noisily, but the others merely rolled their eyes at her and continued chatting about Xi Xi.
"What's the name of the boy Xi Xi likes?" Qian Qian asked curiously, temporarily setting aside her own troubles.
"I don't have a photo of him…"
She changed the question instead.
"So how big is he?"
"Eigh—" Xi Xi almost blurted out the answer, then immediately flushed red and swallowed back the dangerous words. "I think he's already twenty, a little older than me."
Sister Qian Qian wasn't a succubus, and although they were friends, they hadn't known each other that long. So when she asked "how big," she was probably asking about his age.
"Didn't Xinya meet him before?" Ning Chu turned toward the wolf girl nearby. "You said you met him while playing basketball together."
"I wanna drink too!"
She turned to Lily instead and asked, "What's Xinya making such a fuss about?"
Without a word, Lily grabbed a drink from the fridge, took a sip, and then answered:
"Her boyfriend wants to break up with her."
"What? Haven't they already been dating for half a year? Why does he suddenly want to break up?"
Half a year ago, for some reason, that guy suddenly launched an intense pursuit of Yan Xinya. The wolf girl had never been good at resisting persistent pestering, so in the end she agreed to date him.
They hadn't seemed to argue during these past months, and people would occasionally spot the two of them strolling sweetly around campus together.
Yan Xinya slumped across the table and picked up where Lily left off.
"I just accidentally punched him once."
"Well…"
"He tried to grab my boobs! I reacted instinctively and slammed him to the ground!" the wolf girl declared righteously. "I didn't do it on purpose! I already apologized!"
"..."
Although she always acted carefree and rough around the edges, she was actually very sensitive inside. Ever since experiencing sexual harassment before, she had become especially resistant to intimate physical contact from men.
To be fair, an ordinary person probably couldn't withstand one punch from this girl. Even though Ning Chu usually treated her like a husky, she was still, at the end of the day, a big wolf.
"At this rate, how are you ever gonna find a boyfriend? You've been dating for half a year and only held hands. Even elementary school relationships aren't this innocent," Ning Chu teased.
Xi Xi nodded furiously, "Exactly, exactly!"
"Maybe I just don't like him enough?" Yan Xinya muttered while lying on the table, her big tail sweeping lazily across the floor as she puffed out her cheeks. "Back then I only agreed because he annoyed me so much, and because you guys kept egging me on."
Ning Chu immediately cleared herself of responsibility.
"I told you to think it over carefully back then. It was Xi Xi who encouraged you."
"I was just following Sister Lily's lead!"
Lily glanced around before her gaze landed on Qian Qian.
"Don't drag me into this. I didn't even know about it," Qian Qian rolled her eyes.
The bar fell silent for a moment, and then all the girls let out long sighs at the same time.
With internships approaching, all sorts of troubles had started piling up.
"Lily, what's wrong with you?" Ning Chu noticed that Lily was sighing along with everyone else.
Lily's usual icy expression—her carefully maintained mask—finally cracked. Lowering her eyes, she fiddled with her fingernails, her voice filled with melancholy.
"Next semester… we won't be able to gather together like this anymore…"
"No way. I'm definitely staying around school! Why rush into internships so early?" Yan Xinya declared with a completely unmotivated attitude.
Xi Xi nodded rapidly again.
"Exactly! I don't wanna work either. Sister Lily, take me with you for graduate school exams! Carry me!"
"I… might go to Shanghai with Wen Yang."
Ning Chu suddenly felt as if she had betrayed her best friends. She shrank her neck guiltily and spoke in a small voice.
"Eventually everyone has to go their separate ways…"
"..."
Forcing out a smile, she tried to comfort them.
"How about we set a fixed time every year to meet up? Like staying at Lily's place for a few days, soaking in hot springs or something?"
Without realizing it, she had made a whole group of close friends during her time at this school.
Three years had passed in the blink of an eye. If Lily hadn't brought it up, Ning Chu might have continued believing they still had a long time left to fool around together. Only now did she suddenly realize there was just one final month remaining.
Next semester, internships will begin. One by one, everyone at this table would step into society, and it would become impossible to gather all together like this again.
"How about a drink?"
Seeing everyone silent, Qian Qian turned around and grabbed two bottles of liquor from the shelf behind the bar.
...
"Got sealed by my bed. I'm not late, right?"
When Zhang Shaoqing casually pushed open the pub door and looked inside, he found the four girls all slumped over the counter in a daze. Even Ning Chu, who normally hated drinking the most, looked completely drunk.
He froze in place and scratched his head in confusion.
"Why're you all drinking in broad daylight?"
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Link for character illustration:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1IxOucqi87ss3bmqfO9zI2gYiM1Gy8Hz2
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Tn: I updated the story once a day, but if you want to see more chapter of this story ahead of time, please go to my Patreon.
Latest Chapter: Volume 3 Chapter 41 / Chapter 546: Lin Li[1]
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[1] https://www.patreon.com/HannibalNotBarca/posts/trapped-in-164939812?collection=234094
[2] https://www.patreon.com/HannibalNotBarca/posts/trapped-in-164939812?collection=234094